Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

by John R. Trimble (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A storehouse of practical writing tips, written in a lively, conversational style. Readers lean to develop a “writer's sense”: the book demonstrates that writing is really applied psychology since it is essentially the art of creating desired effects. Provides an explanation of what effects are desirable and how to create them. An exceptional book that works successfully on several levels simultaneously. Provides new insight into: how to generate interesting ideas and get them down on paper; how to write a critical analysis; how to write a crisp opener; how to invigorate a banal style; how to punctuate with confidence; how to handle various conventions, and much more. For anyone who needs a reference guide on writing.

From the Publisher
A concise, witty, practical book on style that is as entertaining as it is genuinely instructive. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (January 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130257133
• ISBN-13: 978-0130257130
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,716 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent (though not perfect), January 5, 2001

By	Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a fine book, and I'm surprised it's not better known. More useful than Strunk & White, less intimidating than Joseph Williams, it is the single best book for someone who is looking to improve their writing beyond spelling and grammar. With clear, succinct, and witty chapters on subjects which other books go overboard on -- beginnings, middles, and ends; diction; punctuation; revising and proofreading -- there is no better introduction to the art (beyond the craft) of writing. There are useful tips on usage and superstitions ("never use contractions", "never split an infinitive", etc.) as well as a twenty-five-page collection of quotes from writers about writing. Many of the points which Trimble considers most important are highlighted in boxes separate from the text, so if you're in a hurry and looking for the meat of a chapter, it's easy to find.

This is not a perfect book, though, an it's not intended to be encyclopedic, so you won't find answers to all your questions. The chapter on writing a critical analysis is tantalizingly useless and seems like an afterthought (although it was included in the first edition). The "Quoting" chapter is useful if you're not doing academic writing, but the book seems aimed at an academic audience, and such audiences mostly need to know the details of citing sources through the MLA , APA, or Chicago styles. (On the other hand, Trimble has some interesting tips on using quotes in your writing.)

If you're an experienced writer, you won't find anything new here. That's okay, though. Few of the ideas Trimble explores have ever been stated more clearly or gracefully. What he lacks in depth he makes up for in style, and since many books which are about style are not written with it, it's nice to encounter a text which is so pleasant to read. The best chapter, to my mind, is the first: "Thinking Well". Plenty of books talk about this subject, or pass over it quickly, or allude to it, but I don't know of any which give it the importance it deserves aside from this book, and I've never seen the case stated with, simultaneously, such practicality and eloquence. It is the meeting of those two qualities which makes Trimble's book unique.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slim, seminal volume, March 31, 2000

By	Eric P. Perramond "Don Perrito" (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was assigned in a graduate-level research methods class in geography. I generallly do not hold much hope for writer's "manuals," but Trimble's slim volume is so much more. His own writing is clear, honest, and pithy. I make all of my senior research students read it now, as a professor, and it's by far the best small treatise on the subject. It could be used side-by-side with Strunk&White's Elements of Style seamlessly. Get it!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for anyone interested in 'Writing with Style', January 19, 2001

By	Jeffrey Wolf "postgraduate" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Everyone knows about and owns a copy of Strunk and White, but I found this little book by Trimble to be a lot more useful and probably more relevant to writing today.

If I were to teach a writing course (unlikely as it sounds), I'd be sure to have all my students buy a copy of this to supplement their writing practice.

The highlight of this book, I think, is Trimble's comments on style. He has a great chapter on 'Superstitions' of writing. Still think that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition? Not so. The best response to someone who insists that you should is to tell the short anecdote about Churchill, as Trimble does: "When the prime minister--a Nobel Laureate in literature--found that an editor of his memoirs had had the cheek to 'correct' one of his sentences ending in a preposition, he wrote back, 'This is the kind of impertinence up with which I shall not put.'"